Beautifully Tragic
by Beautifully.Tragically.Lovley
Summary: Comfort was something that they found in each other. Dan & Blair. Through it all they found it each other and that was Beautifully, Tragic.


**Dair, are my guilty pleasure couple. I am a Chair sipper, but I love writing Dair. So enjoy. **

**Disclaimer- I don't own **_**Gossip Girl**_** or its characters. **

_Flashbacks are in Italics. _

**Written from ****Dan's POV**

**NB- Blair & Dan are very out of character, at some points. Set pre season 3, everything in S1 & 2 happened, but after that I have altered.**

_Beautifully_. **Tragic.**

Throughout history, amidst the war, devastation and hurt, people look to things to give them hope. Some look to family, others to materialistic things, like money, or fast cars. For two people, they looked to each other.

Their friendship had been an unlikely one. In fact in the beginning both of them had found that their mutual hate for each other had been their only thing in common. But as they graduated high school and started college the two had found themselves relying on each other in a way that no one saw coming. It had all started as she had found herself having a hard time fitting into college life, and had found that he could help her with that.

--

"_Please, you have to help me. I don't know how to be-"she paused looking at him before speaking again, he watched as she took a deep breath and said, "The unpopular person. I am used to having people want to be me, not want to-"another pause. "Please Humphrey, I don't like being the girl who begs, but if that's what gets you going-"he cut her off._

"_Please stop talking" he said suddenly. "I will help you but I have one condition" he said smirking _

"_Anything, just name it" he had only seen her like this once before, and he hated to admit this but Blair, helpless annoyingly and agreeable was not as satisfy to watch as he had first found. "Humphrey!?" she said waving her hand in his face to get his attention back. _

"_Lose the headband and we have a deal" _

_--_

From that moment on they had been each others rock. When he had needed to talk to her, particularly about his step sister/ex girlfriend Serena, and how to fight the sea of craziness that surrounded the Upper East Side, she was there and when she had needed advice on the new world that was NYU, he was more than happy to give it to her. And while both had found that the advice they gave each other was never that helpful, they found that a certain amount of comfort came from just being there for each other.

It was the beginning of their sophomore year of college that the two really became close, closer than many would have liked.

--

_He walked up to the door of her dorm room, he looked down at his wrist watch checking the time of his arrival and measuring it with the time she had called him, ten minutes, that's how long it had taken him to get from his dorm room, grab a thing of ice cream and run to her dorm room something about her had always made him feel the need to be at her every beck and call. He took a deep breath and wiped the sweat from his brow, before knocking on the door. _

"_Come in" he heard a voice speak from inside, as he opened the door he found her sitting next to her bed on the floor, her eyes were puffy and her hair was up and for the first time ever he saw that gone was her perfect couture and in its place was a black singlet and black and white track pants. _

"_Blair?" he asked tentatively as he shook his head in disbelief, "What happened, wasn't, Chuck supposed to take you out for a romantic dinner, candles, moonlight-" he stopped himself watching her, she looked broken. He had seen Blair Waldorf look a lot of things, evil, manipulative. But broken hadn't been something that had ever graced her prefect features. _

"_Chuck, he-"she chocked on her words slightly, as she stopped and laid her head on his shoulder. _

"_It's over, between us" she spoke softly and for the first time in his life he didn't have anything to say, so instead he lay his head on top of hers and held her hand as tightly as he possibly could. _

_--_

It had been five years since that night, and since then they had been through countless, break ups, make ups, fights, ice cream, graduations and many things that you could only go through with someone you truly cared about.

--

As he walked into his father and step mothers Upper East Side apartment, he felt himself smile as he saw his family sitting in the living area. His father had a smile on his face that Dan had used to find a rare sight until he married Lily Bass, now Humphrey. Dan watched as Lily stared at his father adoringly, as Jenny and her current boyfriend whose name escaped Dan at that moment, sat next to his step sister who had been sitting with her fiancée and her brother and his boyfriend Jonathan.

"Dan, you're late" Serena said jokingly as she hugged him tightly. He laughed as he came to join the rest of the family.

"Happy Anniversary, Dad, Lily" Dan spoke before taking the spot on the couch next to Serena's fiancé Nate Archibald.

"Where's Blair today, usually your attached to each others hips" Serena spoke. After that night sophomore year, Blair and Dan had pretty much been there for everything with each other. Something that their best friends Serena and Vanessa had found shocking, and while Vanessa had chosen to use Chuck Bass to help separate the two of them. Blair hadn't let it face her as she hated Chuck and Vanessa, and chose her friendship with Dan over the former love of her life. And Dan had in turn surprised everyone when he had chose Blair over childhood friend and then girlfriend Vanessa. Promptly after this decision, Serena accepted their friendship and Dan broke things of with Vanessa.

--

"_Blair?" he asked as he peered round the door of her new dorm room. They had made it to junior year, and after he had convinced her to spend the summer in New York with him and the Van Der Woodsen/ Humphrey family instead of spending it with her mother and step father in there new home of California their friendship had only grown stronger. _

"_I'm coming, hold on" she said as she opened the door and went back to the mirror to continue fixing her hair. _

"_Up or down, cabbage patch?" she asked him. _

"_Up or down, are we talking about your hair, because if so that's really a question for Serena or Jenny, not me your-"she cut him of_

"_Jeez Humphrey, don't get so upset it was just a question" she said looking over to him and smiling, this was the first time that Dan Humphrey realised that she was beautiful, not like Serena's movie star looks or Vanessa's plain girl next door looks. Blair Waldorf was beautiful, in a way that he had never seen; it was as if at this very moment she was the only thing of beauty in the world. And he was hooked. _

"_Come on Humphrey quit wasting my time; we are going to be late to Serena's party" he laughed as she dragged him out the door, forgetting his sudden feelings for his brunette friend. _

_--_

"She's got work, but she said she would drop by later. She gave me this to give to you though" Dan said as he handed over a gift wrapped present to Lily and Rufus.

"Oh" Lily said as she opened it. "Its' beautiful" Dan looked down to find that Blair had given them a photo album, with the words, 'family' written in gold writing on it and underneath a photo of the Van Der Woodsen/ Humphrey family, as Dan looked inside she had written 'to the family that gave me a home away from. B xoxo'. As Dan flicked through the album he noticed many photos, one particular one caught his eye though. One of him and Blair.

"I remember that day" a voice said behind him.

"Hmm, me to" he said to the voice.

"You ever going to tell her how you feel, Dan" it continued

"Jen..." he said

"She's right Dan" Dan turned to find Serena being the one to speak to him

"What is it gang up on your brother day" Dan said smirking slightly at the girl who was like a sister to him.

"Dan, she may not have thought of you as anything than more than a friend originally, but she loves you" Jenny said, Dan turned to look at his family and saw that their looks all red the same. He had to tell her.

--

_As he laid next her on the bed, holding her in his arms he couldn't help but feel content. Now seniors they were on their way to graduation, for Dan this meant writing; he didn't know were but he knew that that was what he wanted to do. For her he knew this meant fashion, or business. Whatever she chose to do with her life she would be brilliant at. She stirred beside him. _

"_Dan" she spoke carefully. _

"_Hmm" _

"_What happens when we graduate?" he looked down at her_

"_Nothing has to change Blair, you and me we will always be Blair and Dan. The most unlikely of friends" he said smiling at her_

"_Humphrey" she said elbowing him gently, in mock annoyance. _

"_Waldorf, we will figure it out" he said "Because we've come this far and I know how much you hate not getting what you want" he finished smiling down at her. _

_--_

They had always figured it out, Dan thought to himself. Both turning down various jobs out of state, instead choosing to live in, much to Blair's initial disgust, the Humphrey loft and working entry level jobs so they could stay together; Blair working for _Vouge _as an assistant to the assistant and Dan at the _New Yorker_ in the mail room. They had come along way since those days; Blair was now a junior Beauty editor at _Elle_ and Dan a features writer for _The New York Times_. They were now sharing an apartment on the Upper West Side.

--

As Dan walked in to their apartment he found that Blair was home,

"Dan, I didn't know if you were having dinner with the family or if you were coming home, sorry I only ordered enough Chinese for one" she said pointing to the small amount of take out at their kitchen table.

"That's okay" he said he thoughts to muddled to even mock at the fact that the once Upper East Side Princess was eating Chinese take out.

"Blair, we need to talk" he said sitting across from her at the table.

"Sounds serious Humphrey, what's up?" she said plopping the last bite of her egg role in her mouth. This was it, the moment he should have had five years ago when she had taken his heart before Serena's 20th birthday party.

"I-"he paused running his fingers through his hair.

"You?" she prompted.

"Blair, you and me have been through so much together, from Chuck and Vanessa shocking everyone and announcing their engagement, to well me and you becoming friends, and well" he stammered. "The thing is somewhere along the line I" another pause, he saw her take in a sharp intake of breath.

"I fell for you Blair, head over heels, consumed by it. In love with you" he said it; he saw her blow out a breath, had she been holding it in that whole time. She didn't say anything; she sat there, moving the fork around on her plate.

"Waldorf?" he asked waving a hand in front of her face, a déjà moment that made it all the more awkward.

"I don't know what to say Dan, I just-"she stopped and he could tell she was thinking. "Me and you, we aren't exactly-"she stopped again. "Dan, we fight all the time, and when we aren't fighting we just finding more things to fight over" she finished. "We aren't couple material" she said.

He looked up at her, thinking intently about his next move he walked over to her, before she even had time to think his lips crashed onto hers. It was exactly as he had imagined it, like straight out of a sappy romantic comedy, as he broke away from her he found that her eyes were still closed, holding her he could feel her heart still beating, fast, her lips pursed as she thought,

"You shouldn't have done that" she spoke softly

"Blair-"before he could finish her lips found his again. Breaking away, she spoke again,

"But I am so glad you did" she smiled. He went to speak,

"Humphrey, please don't ruin the moment by being yourself" he smiled and he could tell that while she was kidding, there was a small amount of truth to it. Smiling he hugged her from behind, placing soft kiss that trailed up and down her neck, tomorrow, he thought, for tomorrow they would talk.

--

_Fin _

_Hopefully you enjoy and review. _

_B. xoxo_


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